In the winter of 2013, a life was tragically cut short in Prince George's County, Maryland. Sixteen-year-old Marcus Antonio Jones, a male student at Friendly High School, was fatally shot in the early hours of Sunday, January 20th. The teenager had been attending a birthday party on Webster Lane in Fort Washington. After leaving the event and as he was walking to his car, he was struck by a gunshot.
Police responded to the scene in the 7700 block of Webster Lane around midnight to find Jones suffering from a gunshot wound. He was rushed to Southern Maryland Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The investigation that followed pointed to a conflict that had erupted at the party. Detectives learned that members of rival gangs were in attendance, and tensions had escalated throughout the evening. This led to additional gang members being called to the location. Among those who arrived were two former students of Crossland High School in Camp Springs, 17-year-old Akil Darnell Ings and 19-year-old Kquantae Markies Fisher, along with a third unidentified individual. Authorities believe that Ings, Fisher, and the third suspect approached a group of people standing outside, which included Marcus Antonio Jones. It was at this point that Ings allegedly pulled out a firearm and shot Jones. While it was unclear if Jones was the intended target, investigators were confident that the shooting was a result of the gang-related tensions at the party.
Within days of the shooting, Prince George's County police announced the arrests of Akil Darnell Ings and Kquantae Markies Fisher. Both were charged with first and second-degree murder. Ings, identified as the suspected gunman, was taken into custody in Washington D.C. to await extradition, while Fisher was held at the Department of Corrections on a no-bond status. Police were actively searching for a third suspect involved in the incident. The trial for Akil Ings was scheduled to begin in February 2014. In a tragic turn of events, Kquantae Fisher, who was expected to testify against Ings, was killed inside his Fort Washington home in September 2013, just months before the trial was set to commence. Despite this, the case against Ings proceeded, and a jury ultimately convicted him of second-degree murder, use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence, and other related charges. He was sentenced to a total of 50 years in prison.
